1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an identification device, an identification system, and a card issuing device & system which perform identification process of a person.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, there are two kinds of methods to identify a person. One is a method which uses certificates possessed by the person to be identified. Some examples of these certificates are a car license, passport etc. attached with a photograph of the person to be identified.
Another is a method which uses physical characteristics of the person, either himself or herself. Some examples of these physical characteristics are a fingerprint, a voiceprint etc. of the person.
However, certificates are often fabricated or reconstructed by a person or industry that steals information from another person to create fraudulent documents. So, those cannot afford a satisfactory identification.
On the other hand, the use of physical characteristics disturbs the privacy of the person to be identified. Moreover, fingerprint or voiceprint has often failed to recognize the person to be identified.
By the way, there are various opportunities for identifying people today. A typical example requiring identification is the issuance of a credit card. Other examples of occasions or situations requiring identification are the reissuing a car license, permitting entry into a building (i.e. of a company) and so on. More recently, there is a security need for gaining access to a certain address in a network, such as the Internet.
And the accuracy of identification is different between each of these occasions. For example, to issue a credit card, a high accuracy of identification is needed.
When a credit card is issued, a certificate such as a car license is needed to certify a person who wants a credit card. And, an investigation for insuring by the credit card company is needed.
On the other hand, there are occasions when such high accuracy of identification is not needed. In these occasions, complex identification should be avoided because it costs much for high accuracy identification.
Therefore, a device or system is needed for making identification according to the accuracy request of the identification.